Thursday, January 5, 2017

Trump Team Planning For Multiple Appointments To The Supreme Court

Politico has a story about the incoming Trump administration’s planning for its first and possibly subsequent appointments to the Supreme Court. The piece offers some insight into the top candidates as well as the thinking behind the selection process.

The focus for the first pick, to replace the late Justice Scalia, is someone who will not “grow in office” but will be a solid conservative vote. But the team is also looking beyond that to consider other judges on the lists (there are two) Trump has previously released who might be a good nominee if one of the liberal judges leaves the court. The thinking is that the first appointment should be relatively painless because even a very conservative selection would only restore the same balance the court had before Justice Scalia’s death.

“To the extent there are ways of slicing and dicing the list, you want to be sensitive to who would be best as your first, forward-looking nominee for the Scalia seat,” said the transition official. “And then who are your better bets for seats that are going to be potentially more contentious.”

Two of the most-discussed names are Diane Sykes of the Chicago-based 7th Circuit federal appeals court and William Pryor of the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit, in part because Trump himself name-dropped them at a primary debate last February.

Though the story doesn’t say so outright, it seems the selection team is planning with the idea in mind that the next vacancy Trump is asked to fill would be Justice Ginsburg’s seat. ....